In J. Begus, ed. 1999. Proceedings of Symposium Working Under a Dynamic Framework-Forest Ownership Structures and Extension.
International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, Extension Working Party S6.06-03. October 3-8, 1999. Bled, Slovenia, Europe. In Press.

Abstract

There is a paucity of consolidated, usable and effective information dealing with agroforestry and
forest Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in eastern and central Africa. This presentation will report on the status of a collaborative, multinational World Wide Web based information system Bugwood Africa. Bugwood Africa
was designed and is being implemented with the objectives of:

Assisting African scientists and educators in implementing and improving forest health in forest and agroforestry IPM systems in eastern and central Africa;

Assisting African scientists and educators in developing a repertoire of forest and agroforestry IPM and forest health educational materials, including acquisition, digitization and delivery of quality
color photographs;

Fostering development of an electronic information technology (IT) system to consolidate and deliver these materials to scientists, educators and users at a multinational-level;

Assisting the Tree Pest Management Network for Eastern and Central Africa
in implementing forest IPM and to improve forest health by facilitating the development and maintenance of IT systems to support network activities;

Evolving and maintaining IT systems to enhance forest health research in environmentally sensitive ecosystems in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Kenya and Tanzania;

Providing leadership, coordination and implementation of these IT systems.

This presentation will provide the audience with an update on the background, progress and status of this project.

Increasing human populations have placed greater demand on the resources of African forests to provide
food, fuel wood, clean water and other forest products. For example, in Tanzania the natural forest resource is shrinking by 1.15 percent (total natural forest in 1990 was 33,555,000 hectares) and in
Kenya by 0.55 percent (total natural forest in 1990 was 1,187,000 hectares) per annum as land is converted to other uses. Pressures on these African forests are coming from both human-related
causes, and, possibly from the indirect influences of damaging forest health agents such as insects, tree pathogens and animals. There are serious conflicts between the use of the ecosystem by the local
people to meet their requirements for income and food production, and the sustainability of the forest resource with its unique biodiversity of flora and fauna.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a knowledge based approach to crop protection that requires readily available site specific information for its successful implementation. IPM in Africa has had a
limited impact in raising agricultural productivity in most sectors. Poor access to IPM knowledge and poor interactive networking have been major constraints in the effective development and implementation of IPM (ICWESA 1999).

Dissemination of crop protection technology options range from nationally based extension programs and locally based innovative methods of technology transfer to internationally available experience.
Access to such information is greatly facilitated by the tremendous development in electronic communications during recent years. The Internet has become a vast resource from which IPM
information and experience can be drawn (IPM Information Partnership 1999).

Authors Douce and Moorhead became interested in facilitating the implementation of IPM in forest and
agroforestry systems in East Africa as a result of discussions and contacts made during the second International Union of Forest Research Organization (IUFRO), Extension Working Party Symposium
held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1997.

Subsequent to their attendance at the Second IUFRO Extension Working Party Symposium, Dr. Douce
entered into discussions with Mr. J. D. Ward, US Forest Service International Advisor- Africa. Drs. Douce and Moorhead partnered with Mr. Ward and Professor Joe Mwangi, Moi University in Eldoret,
Kenya and Director of the Kenyan Forest Health Centre, to author an invited paper presented at The Integrated Pest Management Communications Workshop: Eastern/Southern Africa held in Nairobi,
Kenya at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in March 1998 (Douce et al. 1998a). This presentation and paper dealt with a concept of utilizing information systems to assist in
the implementation of forest and agroforestry IPM.

The purpose of the workshop was to explore ways in which access to electronic mail and the Internet
could enhance communication and knowledge transfer of IPM in sub-Saharan Africa. The ultimate aim was to facilitate delivery of IPM information in order to improve development and implementation of IPM
by the farmer in collaboration with research and extension intermediaries.

Workshop objectives (ICWESA 1999) were to:

Characterize the information needs of IPM practitioners and transfer intermediaries.

Explore both the potential, and the limitations of, electronic communication technologies as applied to IPM problem solving, transfer, and use.

Identify and enhance networking opportunities for IPM and improved information sharing among IPM practitioners and transfer intermediaries in the context of sustainable agriculture initiatives within the region.

Promote interaction and idea exchange among information and telematics specialists and key players involved in IPM research, extension, and implementation, including national and
international programs, NGOs, and the commercial private sector.

A survey questionnaire was distributed to workshop participants, to get a "snapshot" of a) participants' work or field of intervention, b) exposure to and experience with computers, and c) access to and use of
the World Wide Web (WWW) and Email for IPM information gathering and exchange. Of 35 completed forms received, 32 were from African participants. Of the completed survey forms, over 77 % of those
responding indicated that they had full access to a computer, and over 51% of these individuals had access to the World Wide Web (WWW).

Additionally, responders indicated that access to the WWW would be beneficial because it would facilitate access to timely IPM information (scientific literature, extension publications, project/policy
development, databases), and aid in information dissemination. More information on the integration of the World Wide Web into ongoing and developing agricultural IPM activities in East and Central Africa is
available in Stinner (1998).

Developments and Collaborations

The University of Georgia

Dr. Douce is an active member of the African studies faculty.

Dr. Douce initiated International Memorandum of Agreements between:

The University of Georgia and Moi University in Eldoret Kenya that has been officially signed by both institutions and is now in place to allow for institutional collaborations between the
institutions. The initial agreement area of focus was in the forestry / agroforestry information systems area.

The University of Georgia and The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry based in Nairobi, Kenya.

This agreement has been signed by both institutions and is now in place to allow for institutional collaborations between the institutions. The initial agreement area of focus was in the forestry /
agroforestry information systems area.

Drs. Douce and Moorhead have recently been awarded two seed grants from The University of Georgia's
Vice President for Public Service and Outreach International Programs Seed Grants program. One of these seed grants is to assist in further development of the African Forestry, Agroforestry and
Environment web site and the second is to work with other UGA African studies faculty to develop a strategy and a demonstration web site to address consolidation and delivery of African indigenous
knowledge related to projects in forestry and natural system educational activities being conducted by UGA faculty working in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Drs. Douce and Moorhead were also recently awarded a small grant from The UGA International Education Program Travel Grant fund to partially support future work in Kenya and Tanzania.

US Forest Service

A Letter of Record is in place between the US Forest Service and The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Republic of Kenya that supports cooperative work between The US Forest Service
and The Kenyan Forest Health Centre located in Nairobi, Kenya.

Authors Hertel and Ward are with the Northeastern and Southern Region Forest Health Protection Units
and have been instrumental in the formulation of and supports the African Tree Pest Management Network activities. The African Tree Pest Management Network consists of Governmental Forestry
Organizations from several African countries with the objective of containing the damage caused by pests to trees and forest products in the African region within economically, socially and
environmentally acceptable levels, through regional networking for effective and sustainable pest management.

Dr. Hertel and Mr. Ward, along with other US Forest Service personnel have conducted training and
study tours for African cooperators both within their home country and in the US as well as have provide technical assistance on an as needed basis. Through their efforts, the US Forest Service has also
partially funded several International Conferences and has paid expenses of several African scientists to participate in conferences and meetings.

Additionally, seed funding has been provided to The University of Georgia personnel associated with this project to develop the framework for and to implement the information technology systems that will be
discussed later in this paper.

Information Technology Approach and Philosophy

As a result of contacts made at the ICWESA meeting, Dr. Douce was invited to attend and make a
presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa held in Entebbe, Uganda in October, 1998 (Douce et al. 1998b).

The Entomology and Forest Resources Digital Information Work Group (The Work Group) at The University of Georgia, coordinated by Drs. Douce and Moorhead have a long history of utilizing
Information Technology to address informational and communications needs of IPM practitioners. The World Wide Web sites developed and maintained by The Work Group, collectively called The Bugwood
Network, average over 10,000 visits per month. The Work Group has released two commercial grade CD-ROMs containing Kodak Photo CD high resolution images of forest pests, and is developing a
high-resolution digital image archival library which currently contains in excess of 5,000 (mainly North American) forest pests and management images (Douce et. al. 1995, Douce et al. 1999).

In addition to the obvious concern that the web sites contain appropriate content, paramount among the concerns of The Work Group management are:

1. Speed of access by users, and the impact that access speed can have on the ability of the user to effectively use the information on the web site.

2. Effective navigation within and throughout each site, and allied sites. We are particularly cognizant of the fact that many of our potential users are not highly experienced users.
Consequently, we have attempted to make our sites extremely user-friendly and consistent throughout. We are of the belief that technology is great, but it is the information and content
contained in the web site that is important ... the technology is just a mechanism to deliver that content! Additionally, every Bugwood Network web page provides access to other pertinent Bugwood Network web sites.

3. Use of graphics. Although web sites should be visually appealing, and we use graphics and images to illustrate content, we have tried to insure that the graphics do not detract from content
and do not result in causing the user undue delays due to the download times associated with graphics.

4. Full and accurate citations for each article, including author credits. This not only is
professional courtesy, but is also paramount to credibility of the web site. However, after viewing many web sites, we find that citations are often missing or are incomplete. After all, anyone can
put information up on the web. However, to the user, it is extremely important to get a sense of the credibility of the information.

5. Include citations and URLs for each printable page. Many users prefer to print information for subsequent reading and/or copying for use by others. Without citations on each printed page, it
is difficult to effectively find /credit the source of the information.

6. Providing "on-screen" viewing/reading and printable options. Many users prefer to read only
limited portions of content on-screen, and prefer to print and read the articles off-line at a later time. We try to provide both HTML and Adobe Acrobat versions articles on our web sites.

7. Ability of users to find our web site(s). Web addresses are notorious for awkward spellings and long, multi-slashed Uniform Resource Locator (URL) addresses. Although we initially were
required to conform to our University's URL nomenclature, we adopted an acronym "Bugwood" within our Work Group products. We then submitted this acronym to the various web search
engines. Consequently, we are able to tell users to search for the word "Bugwood". The search results will find and present the user with our web address(es). More recently, we have
registered and reserved simple acronym URLs which end in ".org" and are cross-referenced to our older URLs. For example, our web site which was initially known as Bugwood-Africa to
provide IPM content for African forestry and agroforestry information was:

http://www.bugwood.caes.uga.edu/africa/ is now Africa: Forestry, Agroforestry and Environment (AFAE)with a URL http://www.afae.org/
.

8. Date of Posting. Because it is often necessary and can easily be accomplished, content of
web sites can and do change frequently. We feel that it is necessary to place a date of posting for every article on the web site. Otherwise, it is often nearly impossible for the user to determine
whether there has been a change in content of the particular article of interest.

Our Vision Includes Using Information and Communications Technologies To Compliment and Extend The Mechanisms Already In Use

Traditionally, professionals have communicated via personal contact, via telephone, publications, letters,
etc. Although these methodologies have been and continue to be effective, we feel that incorporating the Internet, e-mail and other forms of information technologies, such as CD-ROM's can extend and
compliment the traditional methods. Additionally, these technologies can aid in formulating strategies and consolidating information and communications beyond those already in use.

Objectives of our information technology, including those in Africa include:

Obtaining quality information

Consolidation of appropriate and pertinent information at one "location"

Providing the content and information in consistent form and format

Providing a convenient and efficient mechanism for users to locate and obtain the desired information

Providing mechanisms for interested scientists, educators and other users to communicate among and between themselves, regardless of their physical location.

Goals of our projects include:

Building an understanding of the technologies by African-based cooperators.

Transferring the ability to utilize these information technologies to our African-based colleagues.

Institutional building. We anticipate developing a framework that will allow for faculty and student
exchanges and perhaps internship opportunities for students and staff of cooperating institutions.

Gaining an understanding of and documenting knowledge of forestry and agroforestry practices being carried out by indigenous peoples.

The Bugwood Network

The Bugwood Network is comprised of the world wide web sites developed, maintained and hosted by
The Work Group. Currently, this network consists of seven sites, with at least four more in advanced development. The Bugwood entry site (

http://www.bugwood.caes.uga.edu/ ) will also soon be available via the URL: (http://www.bugwood.org/ ) serves as our primary USA forest entomology and forestry site.
In addition to providing easy and consistent access to content appropriate to our University of Georgia and USA clientele, it established overall Bugwood Network navigation and format standards, and
provides a "portal" to all of the Network sites.

A "screen capture" of the current Bugwood Network entry page is shown in Figure 1. This is the entry
point of our common University of Georgia clientele, and provides direct navigation to the most common content needs of our Georgia and USA clientele. We have attempted to provide a clean and easy
access to content in each of our Bugwood Network web sites, as well as to make this page attractive and quick loading. Although we have used some graphics, they are very small and are quick loading.
Notice that in addition to topic-oriented breakouts frequently used by our clientele, we have two "feature" areas that can be easily changed to highlight new products, conferences and workshops, etc. that
might be of interest to our clientele. We have attempted to establish a Network "look and feel" that allows for easy navigation throughout the network with this page. Only the top two thirds of the page is
shown in Figure 1. Not shown is a "banner" that establishes The Entomology and Forest Resources Digital Information Work Group associated with both the College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences/Warnell School of Forest Resources at The University of Georgia as the host/originator of the web site and identifies our geographic location in Tifton, GA USA. Also on the bottom part of this page
is a bar that allows for direct navigation to each of our major Bugwood Network sites, a question and comments e-mail and the date that the page was last modified. We feel that all of these items are
extremely important to the user as means of establishing credibility of the site contents and to determine accuracy and the status of the timeliness of the information on this page.

The purpose of this web site is to promote the protection, health and sustainability of Africa Forests,
Agroforests and Forest Environments. This web site is the result of evolution and consolidation of information and activities initiated in conjunction with the original Bugwood - Africa web activities. This
site was renamed, in part, because of the misconception that the name implied that the content only dealt with forest entomology and forest disease activities. The project team determined, that in spite of
the web site recognition already in place with the Bugwood name, it would be more effective to rename the site and expand the scope of the content material to allow for more comprehensive coverage of
pertinent information. See Figure 2 for a representation of the Home page for this web site. Category breakouts include:

News and Information - a place to put current popular press articles, make meeting announcements, etc.

Contacts - provides the names and a link to abbreviated vitae for project personnel, including contact information.

Library - provides navigation to the various Fact Sheets, Publications, Newsletters, and Reference Articles and Information that we have been able to compile, obtain from project
cooperators and others that have pertinent information available. We do not restrict content solicitation only to project personnel. See Figures 3 and 4 for a representation of the Library entry pages.

Projects - this section lists pertinent projects related to the context of the purpose of this site. Currently, only those which the project personnel are involved with are listed, but it is likely that
many others will be listed at a later time.

Country Profiles - This section will contain general country profiles including forestry/agroforestry base, general demographics, etc. for the principal countries for which the web site contains information.

International Organizations - National and International Organizations and Consultants Interested in Integrated Forest Pest Management in Africa.

Links - context sensitive links are and will be provided here.

Our approach to locating and delivering content includes consolidating quality information from many possible sources, as well as developing original content and making all of the content available to our
clientele. Examples include:

Multi-page publications from outside of our respective organizations, such as:

This project is titled: Monitoring Forest Conditions, Fragmentation and Land Conversion in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya.
This three year project has been under development for some time and was just funded by US-AID, with field work scheduled to begin in February 2000 (Hertel et al. 1999).

designated as a Conservation International globally important Aforest biodiversity hot spot"

under the climatic influence of the Indian Ocean

a series of isolated, originally heavily forested mountains

much of the original forests are gone

important sources of hydropower and water

provide a wide array of forest products

important agricultural production areas.

The primary objective of this project is to show through the use of new and existing forest health monitoring technology and techniques, that current status and trend in forest condition of the Eastern
Arc Mountains can be determined. The proposed project will identify and measure the agents and processes responsible for any adverse impacts, establish a baseline to compare with future surveys and
make this information available to Kenya and Tanzania for planning and policy change purposes. This project is seen as a technology and information dissemination pilot project, which, if successful, would
have application and utility in Africa

The second objective is to train African scientists and professionals in the use of forest health
monitoring technology so they can develop information on any forest ecosystem where continuous information is needed for planning or intervention, and can detect developing forest health problems.

The third objective is to evaluate the capabilities of regional institutions and agencies to conduct forest health monitoring and to assist in developing and improving these capabilities where possible.

The fourth objective is to design and implement an information technology system (World Wide Web / CDROM based) to: 1) demonstrate the capability and use of these technologies, 2) improve
communications between and among project cooperators, and 3) make summarized project findings and project related information available to government agencies, regional institutions, NGOs and the local communities.

In addition, an attempt will be made to show how these data can be used to strengthen the coordination and cooperation between government agencies, regional institutions, NGOs and the local communities.
The information obtained will be used to improve land use patterns to increase food production, provide income opportunities and reduce the impact of damaging forest agents.

The purpose of this web site is to provide information and cooperation for the Eastern Arc Mountains
area of Africa. The categories and breakouts are very similar to those already identified and discussed associated with the AFAE web site, but they are context sensitive. However, since these mountains
are within the geographical area covered by the AFAE site, much of the library information is the same as that listed within the AFAE web site. Figure 5 presents the current Eastern Arc Mountains home page.

The content and scope of information contained on the Eastern Arc Mountains web site will expand rapidly over the next year as the research and coordination aspects of the project get underway and expand.

The Forestry Institutions in the Central, Eastern and Southern Africa were aware of the problems and
challenges posed by the prevalence of tree pests in the region. They collectively became aware of their responsibilities in attempting to reduce the damage caused by tree pests in the region. The founders
became convinced that the impact of the respective institutions can be enhanced through effective collaboration and consultation amongst them. In the mid-1990's, representatives of the organizing
institutions came together and established a regional Network of Forest and Forestry Research Institutions in the pursuit of their common objectives (ATPMN 1997).

The objective of the Network is to contain the damage caused by pests to trees and forest products in the African region within economically, socially and environmentally acceptable levels, through regional
networking for effective and sustainable pest management.

Activities specified in the ATPMN preamble stated that the Network may undertake one or more of the
following activities:

The ATPMN world wide web site was designed to assist the membership and collaborators of the ATPMN to accomplish their objectives.

The overall framework and content of the ATPMN web site is similar to that of the AFAE site with the exceptions of:

the Contacts page which includes:

AFAE Personnel

Providers of Services for IPM in Africa

A Communication Link which provides contact information for each country that is a member of the ATPMN.

We are awaiting the Secretariate of the Tree Pest Management Network who is housed at The Kenyan Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) to provide us with additional information for populating the web site.

Summary and Conclusions

We have identified a number of needs and limitations that are hindering implementation of IPM in African
forest and agroforestry systems. We have developed formal and informal partnerships, formal Memorandum of Agreements, and Letters of Record between our US-based institutions and agencies
with counterpart African institutions and agencies. We believe that by demonstrating ways to integrate the use of various information technologies into ongoing and developing forest and agroforestry IPM
research and educational applications, we can assist our African colleagues in addressing their growing food, fiber and environmental problems.

We intend to continue our attempts to assist our African colleagues in these endeavors. Please visit our Bugwood Network web sites and let us know how we can improve them.

Douce, G.K., Ward, J.D., Mwangi, J. and Moorhead, D.J. 1998a. Utilizing emerging information technologies to improve communication and meet the IPM information needs of forestry/agroforestry
practitioners in Africa. (IN) Workshop on IPM Communications in East and Southern Africa. Sponsored by The IPM Information Partnership (CAB International, Consortium for International Crop Protection
(CICP), Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) SPIPM, IPMEurope, IPMForum, USAID's IPM CRSP/Africa IPM Link; Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural
Cooperation (CTA), The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE); International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF); and USAID Bureau for Africa in collaboration with
regionallybased NGOs such as CARE, and the African regional agricultural research fora., Nairobi, Kenya. URL: (http://www.bugwood.caes.uga.edu/afae/library/99201.html) and
(http://www.cals.vt.edu/ail/ipmcw/proceedings/doc36.htm).